Wholistic Teacher Development

Fostering a learning environment where teachers & students actualise their potential

Children learn when they are in a positive learning environment where curiosity and excitement are displayed by students & teachers. When students are able to see that their teachers are actively learning, something magical happens. The resulting environment becomes one where everyone is a teacher and a learner, taking ownership of their learning to become the best version of themselves.

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Overview

Information on this page is provided by the innovator and has not been evaluated by HundrED.

Web presence

2014

Established

2.5K

Children

3

Countries

Target group

All

Updated

December 2020

Teachers are the wind beneath the students' wings. Augmenting teacher capabilities will ensure that the processes evolve & students soar to impressive heights

About the innovation

Why did you create this innovation?

The Royal Academy consists of the School, Teacher Development Centre (TDC) & Educational Research Centre (ERC). Together these create an environment of active learning which the students can feel. Creating opportunities for teachers to play an active role in their own and the school's development facilitates a culture of engagement and ownership, developing a strong teacher professional identity.

What does your innovation look like in practice?

The Teacher Development Centre facilitates teachers to take ownership of their own growth, helping their colleagues and students grow in the process. Students & teachers create personalised learning Roadmaps based on 5 Areas of Development; Cerebral, Emotional, Spiritual, Physical and Social. These roadmaps are collated by coordinators who create an integrated whole school roadmap. By including teachers' development aspirations within the context of the whole school roadmap, we are able to design unique opportunities for teacher development. This creates opportunities for teachers and students to be involved in each other's growth. In this manner everyone is a learner and a teacher within our learning community. Students are involved in providing professional development for the teachers.

How has it been spreading?

We have partnered with institutions around the world to create custom courses for our teachers. Since 2014, we have been designing professional development workshops with teachers in Bhutan, India & Oman ranging from a week to 15 months.

In 2020, we began creating an online course for in-service teachers who wished to further their professional development. This course was piloted by the Royal Academy in 2020 and launched to in-service teachers in Bhutan in January 2021. By December 2021, we are hoping to make the course available to anyone interested.
A preview of the course is available here - https://theroyalacademy.learnworlds.com/course/introduction-to-the-five-areas-of-development

If I want to try it, what should I do?

1. Students and teachers create individual Roadmaps
2. Establish coordinators (volunteers) to review & collate individual roadmaps into a whole school roadmap
3. Engage in identified opportunities (e.g. research, peer mentoring, collaboration, incorporating technology)
4. Reflect & Review
- Community evolves the roadmap to constantly Raise their Bar

Media

15-month Programme for teachers of The Royal Academy

Teacher Development Centre designed and conducted the 15 month programme for the first cohort of teachers of The Royal Academy from October 2014 to December 2015. Through the philosophy of Raising the Bar and developing Roadmaps, participants were encouraged to ownership and responsibility for their learning and endeavours. This was not only about the constant need to challenge one’s growth, upgrade and evolve but also to use the Roadmaps as an opportunity to pause, reflect and move on in the journey of striving to become the best one can be.

3-month programme for faculty of The Royal Academy (October 2017-January 2018)

The programme was conducted from 16th October 2017- 30th January 2018 and drew on content from the 15-month Teacher Development Programme (2014-2015) but was further individualised to meet the different needs and requirements of the participants. The diverse experiences of the participants allowed the programme to become more productive and collaborative.

7-day online programme for teachers from the Ministry of Education, Bhutan (November 2020)

An online programme for 7-days spread over 4 weeks was conducted for 22 teachers from the Ministry of Education of Bhutan in November 2020. The programme took the participants through a process of understanding the Five Areas of Development. The students of The Royal Academy were also involved as faculty of the programme. Through the process of self introspection and creation of Roadmaps, the participants were encouraged to take ownership of their personal and professional growth.

10- day programme for teachers from the Ministry of Education, Bhutan

The Teacher Development Centre organised a professional development programme for 24 teachers from the 20 districts of Bhutan. The Backstories and Roadmaps created by individual participants were used to generate the content of the program through the Five Areas of Development for individual participants.Here are some reactions from the teachers who participated in the programme" It enhanced my knowledge in using concepts and skills. I would like to try out aspirations and expectation to know about the areas of development of my children and individualised learning process. I learnt that it is always important to be a person of substance first and be able to generate energy in my children. I know that my children have energy, but they need to spark it. " "I realised the crucial call of - How do I learn to help children learn the ways to learn? Transmission of the importance of passion to learn is yet another “aha” concept filled with sacred powerful energy that can help us upgrade, adopt and change as envisioned by His Majesty the King of Bhutan."

Implementation steps

Create Individual Roadmaps of teachers

The Roadmaps include their personal and professional aspirations and responsibilities. From this Roadmap will emerge the strengths and areas that the teacher needs support in.

Collate needs for professional development from the Roadmaps

The strengths and areas for support is collated to gather the professional development needs of the teachers.

Design and conduct contextualised programmes

The Domain Heads and Coordinators for the Areas of Development will use the Roadmaps to create professional development programs for the teachers. The program create space for colleagues to help each other grow as well as using the students to design and conduct professional development for the teachers.

Reviewing and keeping track of Roadmaps

The individual Roadmaps are reviewed every learning cycle (5 times a year) with inputs from the Domain Heads and Coordinators. This allows the teachers to take ownership of and tracking their growth.

Reach out to TDC for tailored programmes

The Teacher Development Centre can deliver tailored programmes for teachers based on the context and needs of the participants.